Troy Public Library comes closer to new building plans

TROY — Plans for a new Troy Public Library  building are steadily coming to fruition after City Council members approved a budget amendment and a recommended architect pick for the potential new building’s schematic design and cost opinion.

The library officially opened at 510 W. Big Beaver Road in 1971. According to the TPL’s Year in Review for 2023-2024, the library has had 1,014,368 items circulated, 344, 049 patron visits, 336,791 items in collection and 71,681 library card holders. The library’s total expense breakdown is listed as $6,320,456 with the total revenue listed as $7,211,589.

In 2023, the consulting firm ReThinking Libraries was hired to assess the library and consider improvement plans for the next five years. The firm surveyed library staff and members of the public for current thoughts on the library and the areas it can improve.

There were over 2,700 responses to the survey.

As a result of the responses, it was determined that people would like to see more space for various library collections as well as space for recreational programs. Despite this, the current state of the library, which is a  50,000 square-foot  building, provides a challenge for implementing major improvements. The Troy Public Library has had no major improvements since the 1980s.

During a City Council meeting last June, ReThinking Libraries representative Robert Cullen explained different options for improving the Troy Public Library. Some of the options included improving the building with no expansions, which would likely cost around $10-$19 million; fully renovating and expanding the existing building to around 60,000 to 75,000 square feet, which could cost $20-$35 million; and building a completely new and expanded building, which could potentially be more than 90,000 square feet, within the Civic Center complex.

The cost for that was estimated to be between $29-$39 million, with a new building outside of the Civic Center complex potentially costing between $33-$43 million.

There has been a strong push for a new library building in the Civic Center complex area by community members and library officials.

Troy Library Director Emily Dumas spoke at a City Council meeting Jan. 27.

“This is a long-awaited moment for our library, as we have faced many challenges over the last five decades from a building that is in desperate need of modernization and expansion,” Dumas said. “As determined by the 2023 strategic planning results that sought input from the Troy community, library staff, and city officials, Troy Public Library’s building is simply not able to meet the needs of the growing and diverse population within its current vastly undersized … facility.”

Dumas noted that architectural firms from all over the country have expressed an interest in the project and the selection committee considered relevant experience, cost, ability to work in a tight timeframe, work plan and methodology, references, and responses to a questionnaire in their selection process. Finalists were also invited to interview with the committee.

HBM Architects, LLC, based in Ohio, was recommended for architectural and engineering services to provide a schematic design and opinion of cost for a new public library building.

City Council members unanimously agreed to award a contract to HBM at the meeting Jan.27.

“HBM Architects greatly appeal to us because they work exclusively with libraries and they bring their wealth of specialized experience to their beautiful and functional designs,” Dumas said. “Their expertise will help us create a space that fosters learning, creativity, community connection, and a library that this community deserves.”

The amount for the contract is $280,000, plus a 15% contingency of $42,000, for an estimated total project cost of $322,000, “at prices contained in the bid tabulation opened Dec. 19, 2024,” according to language from the agenda from the City Council meeting.

Troy City Council also approved a budget amendment from the library fund balance to the library operation fund account in the amount of $222,000.

Further information, after some questions from City Council members, revealed that the hope is to have a timeline, design, and cost plans by May 30, and that HBM has worked with ReThinking Libraries before and will likely work with them for this project.

“We must be the best stewards we can be on behalf of our residents and so voting ‘yes’ is not just a feel-good about how fun it would be to have a new library,” Council member Ellen Hodorek said. “This is an absolutely critical business decision for the city.”

“We have had discussions, we’ve talked about this in many, many different forums about the need for a new library, and so this is just another step towards that end,” Council Member Theresa Brooks said. “And you know just looking at where the money is coming from, it’s already money that has been budgeted and the balance remainder of the money for this project is coming from the library fund. So it’s not taking away from any other projects in the city. So it’s really a no-brainer for me.”

Troy Mayor Ethan Baker also weighed in. He pointed out that although the library ranks as the No. 1 community gathering space in the city, “it’s literally probably our worst public building as well.”

“So I don’t know how you managed to do that all this time, but it is time to move forward and look at finally putting this before voters and the people of this community to make some decisions about the kind of library they want to have in our community, and I’m excited to support this,” Baker said.

For more information, visit troymi.gov and troypl.org.